Monday, April 30, 2007

First, congrats to J Gordon for surpassing D Earnhardts 76 win record. And at Talladega to boot.I watched the race, saw the ending, and was astonished at the amount of trash pelting the cars and the track after the checkered flag.NASCAR has a pitiful reputation amongst many a person and though, according to NASCAR, the trash tossers are less than 1% of the fanbase, it still represents the fanbase to many who look at the sport through their preconceived notion and will use this poor demonstration to substantiate their perspective.To those fans who are STUPID and thoughtless enough to have this poor display of emotion be your only outlet, shame on you. Stay home and let the well meaning fans represent the sports enthusiasts. Go spend your money on a batting cage or something, and quit putting other fans and drivers & tack staff at risk.Kudos to NASCAR for added security and I hope those they caught get hefty a** fines. NASCAR will probably have to build taller fences!!

Saturday, April 28, 2007

With four wins in four races and six drivers sitting in the top 10 in championship points, Toyota's current domination of the Craftsman Truck Series is obvious.Earlier this month, the sanctioning body disallowed an intake manifold that Toyota had been running all season in its trucks and Busch cars (Toyota uses the same engine in each) after chassis dynamometer tests revealed the manufacturer had a "significant" horsepower advantage with the part, according to Craftsman Truck Series director Wayne Auton.ESPN~~~Cup Standings, as they are right now:1 -- Jeff Gordon2 -- Jeff Burton3-- Matt Kenseth4 -- Jimmie Johnson5 -- Denny Hamlin6 +1 Kyle Busch7 +2 Tony Stewart8 -- Carl Edwards9 -3 Clint Bowyer10 +1 Mark Martin, 405 pts behind 1st. FULL Points Standings~~~No matter where you look, there are varying opinions on the contract negotiations between DEI and Dale Earnhardt Jr. When there's news, you'll hear it from me!!~~~David Hyder, one of two Michael Waltrip Racing employees suspended by NASCAR in a cheating scandal at Daytona in February, parted ways with the team on Friday. "As of this morning, Michael Waltrip Racing and David Hyder have ended their employment relationship," Waltrip said Friday at Talladega Superspeedway. AP Sports~~~Tony Stewart Regrets wrestling remarkBefore he was allowed in the racetrack, NASCAR made sure Tony Stewart knew the rules. Summoned to a 6 a.m. meeting Friday morning with top series officials, the two-time champion retracted every bit of the sharp rant he launched against NASCAR while admitting he damaged the sport's credibility by likening it to professional wrestling. AP SportsNASCAR.com~~~Michael Waltrip thinks the qualifying process needs to have a change! (It's not what you might think!!) Waltrip wants the non-qualifiers to make their qualifying laps after the top 35 are done. His point is to take away an advantage a team might have on weather changes. ESPN.com~~~Montoya fined for obscene gesture Juan Pablo Montoya was fined $10,000 by NASCAR on Wednesday for making an obscene gesture on live television last week. Montoya, who was also placed on probation through the end of the year, waved a finger at a camera following practice last week at Phoenix International Raceway. Team officials have maintained the gesture was made in fun and he was unaware the camera was providing a live feed. (Where multiple networks have multiple cameras at all times on all on track action??!!) Sports Illustrated~~~Mike Skinner sets his sights on another NASCAR firstMike Skinner has established a trail of firsts in the NASCAR Craftsman Trucks Series.He won the first race in series history in 1995. He won the series’ first championship. And he was the first to win $1 million.Saturday, when Skinner climbs into his Toyota Tundra for the O’Reilly Auto Parts 250 at Kansas Speedway, he’ll try to become the first in series history to win four consecutive races. thatsracin.com~~~Ricky Hendrick Memorial Charity Ride set May 6 thatsracin.com~~~Hernandez, Carmichael Claim Successful Results for Ginn Racing Development Teams Ginn Racing development drivers Jesus Hernandez and Ricky Carmichael each enjoyed a successful weekend of racing in their respective divisions.

Hernandez, 26, finished fifth in Thursday night's NASCAR Grand National Division West Series event at Phoenix International Raceway & Carmichael, 27, finished seventh in a 50-lap super late model race Saturday night at New Smyrna (Fla.) Speedway. CircleTrackplus.com~~~April 29 is Dale Earnhardt's birthday. Happy Birthday Dale.. you are missed by many. With that being said, Go Junior!! Kick their arses!

Friday, April 27, 2007

The two-time champion was called to a 6 a.m. meeting with NASCAR president Mike Helton, competition director Robin Pemberton and series director John Darby when the garage opened Friday at Talladega Superspeedway.The Joe Gibbs team WAS NOT ALLOWED to unload the car until the meeting had concluded, and later, Tony apologized for his recent rash of remarks and, penalties are forthcoming."nuff said there, let's move on folks.NASCAR.COM

Thursday, April 26, 2007

By now we all know Tony left the Phoenix race without commenting with the press. He says he was upset about the debris yellow flag situations, even though the last yellow flag he had to tackle was for debris. THREE CARS of it to be exact.It's not all jiving with me yet that his leaving without comment is about the debris cautions, but it is what it is.NASCAR on the other hand, is very disappointed in Tony's opinions."NASCAR has been running races since 1948, and we place the safety of the drivers at the top of the list," said spokesman Jim Hunter. "We have more people and more resources than ever officiating our races. The safety of the drivers is our first priority. It has always been that way and will continue to be that way."Furthermore, NASCAR does not force drivers to meet with the media but has post-race procedures in place for the top three finishers and highest finishing rookie. The official entry blank each week lists the policy, but Stewart was adamant on his radio show that he is not required to abide by it.Ya gotta wonder though, if I were a sponsor shelling out some money to fund his race team, for the media exposure for doing so, just how would I feel, when the exposure is the primary reason behind sponsoring an athlete or athletic event.So yet again, we are on the receiving end of another driver's tirade. Good for Tony for speaking his mind. Bad for Tony for not thinking of the fans again, but about himself. For not having the maturity or ability to filter his words and leaving us in the lurch as to why, when J. Gordon passed him back for the lead, and after they rubbed fenders, that he dropped back after that, despite having been able to pass Gordon just a few laps before that. I was wondering if he had cut a tire or something? That is what I was interested in, but instead, all I see are complaints.AP Article

It's been noted by Marty Smith over at ESPN.com some perspectives on the contract negotiations, the $55 million DEI has asked Jr for for majority ownership and other interesting tidbits that are worth the read.Here's some thought on the issue:

I think they are asking for a certain amount from Dale as more of an investment into the company because this is not a simple drivers contract negotiation anymore, it is a bid for ownership of the company, and like any new business partner, he would need to supply funds to participate, much as Fenway has for Roush, or what not.

Both sides knew this was coming up. Teresa would not have hired one of the biggest names in negotiation just for a drivers contract, so obviously Dale and Teresa probably had spoken of what the potential end result was, and Siegel was brought in to work out the details, otherwise, if there was no interest from Teresa's side, they would not have hired Siegel.

I personally wish Dale didn't have to come up with funds, but it is a business acquisition deal, and not unwarranted.

Otherwise, he can take is 'x' millions, and drop it into his own race team and take Budweiser and all the other marketing products that go with it and then, as jlaz4 pointed out, Teresa has herself one heck of a working museum, kind of like the Plymouth Plantation in MA!

But I would be surprised if this doesn't get worked out for both parties desires.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Don't panic yet, the legal battle has some ways to go:Kentucky Speedway no longer wants NASCAR to bring a Nextel Cup race to the track as part of its antitrust lawsuit against the racing governing body and International Speedway Corp.

The speedway filed an amended complaint in U.S. District Court last Friday, saying instead of a Nextel Cup race, it wants a judge to break up NASCAR and ISC, both of which are controlled by Bill France and members of his family.The rest of the article is at SportsIllustrated

Tony Stewart said on his Tuesday Night Sirius Satellite show that NASCAR is playing god by all the debris cautions they are throwing, (20 in 9 races) in their attempt to create better racing. (I have to admit, if they drone on and on, it put's me to sleep and I miss the middle third ofthe race, easy if I'm not reporting on the race.) So Tony played mini-god, rebuked the system and left!!I admit, the number of yellow flags looks 'interesting' at best. But the last time I did not agree with my employer's (yes, Tony is an independent contractor, but his checks come from his NASCAR participation, so for this example, I use the term employer) perspective, or have a bad day, I can't just leave. Of course, the moment NASCAR bends to the idea of not having a debris caution, and someone gets hurt, then what? It's a fine line they play, and they're playing it very interestingly. As Tony said on his show, if it's a competition yellow, then they should call it that and be done with it. That way, the teams can set their cars up for the appropriate type runs. That being, sometimes a car can get better on longer runs, but isn't worth a cr*p on short runs, or just after a green flag restart, OR the setups lend themselves to outlast the competitors and get better on the longer runs.

Here's the thing: If Tony wants to affect change, he needs to set the example. He should have stayed, bit his lip for the moment, and done his 'job' that he ends up getting paid millions for.(Come to think of it though, NASCAR drivers get no sick days. They are always there on Race day, isn't that amazing?)USA Today

Monday, April 23, 2007

Came across a report that the Waltrip investigation is coming to an end soon. More details to follow as they become apparent. link~~~About the 3 flag that Jeff Gordon flew during his victory lap, I read the following interesting quips:"Congratulations to Jeff. He's a class act and I'm happy for him," Dale Earnhardt Jr. said. "I ran over to Victory Lane to shake his hand and let him know."I know a lot of fans of my dad's aren't the biggest Jeff Gordon fans, but he and my dad were business partners on a lot of things and worked together a lot more than most people realize."(Wow, that's interesting to know!)Jeff Gordon had to fight Tony Stewart for the lead at one point just before the race end, and the race over all was pretty good to watch. There's more perspectives on the race from Jeff Gordon at this link~~~So If he comes in 2nd, moving up to spots in the championship standings to 7th, it would seem like they had a decent night, so I don't know why Stewart left the track, declining TV interviews. What's the issue now? Is he retiring AGAIN this week?

Saturday, April 21, 2007

The starting top 10 lineup for the race was 24, 26, 11, 10, 48, 2, 1, 29, 20 & 9 for this COT race.There was some pre-race excitement as Jeff Gordon had to swap out helmets during warm up laps. Hamlin had the car to beat, but he got snagged speeding on pit road.A late race yellow destroyed Kurt Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr., & Ryan Newmans's chances at a top 10 finish as they got caught pitting before and during the yellow.Stewart was strong, but near the end, with 19 laps to go restart, Jeff Gordon had led with Tony Stewart all over his back bumper and finally took the lead with a 3 wide pass, but then Gordon took the lead back from him and pulled slowly away for the win.Hamlin fought his way back from beinng last on the lead lap to 3rd behind Tony Stewart, followed by Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth rounding out the top 5.fought it out for a few laps until Gordon got the better of him and pulled away in the last few laps. It was a great finish to watch.Jeff Gordon now holds the most poles in the modern era record. (According to Fox commentators).Jeff Gordon wins from the pole, ties Dale Earnhardt for all time wins & does a victory lap flying a 3 flag in honor of his acheivement..Hendrick motorsports now has won the last (all) 3 COT races.Jr comes in 19th. Kurt Busch comes in 18th.http://msn.foxsports.com/nascar/cup/results for complete results.

Friday, April 20, 2007

It seems that Kyle Busch was not aware that his team was scrambling to put the car back together. “I assumed the car was finished, that there was too extensive damage to fix it. I took that as an indication we were done for the day, went to the hauler and changed my clothes,” Busch said Thursday." And apparently no one on the team told him about it. At least that's teamwork!http://www.thatsracin.com/242/story/3803.html~~~Waltrip shuffled up his Toyota team a bit this week by adding Buddy Sisco as crew chief for Michael Waltrip’s embattled No. 55 Toyota team effective with this weekend’s Nextel Cup race at Phoenix.http://www.thatsracin.com/242/story/3791.html~~~On the same team note, Michael Waltrip is cutting back on his TV time to focus more on his team."Waltrip, looking a bit haggard and a little thinner than when the season began, acknowledges he took on a huge task in jumping into NASCAR’s Nextel Cup series with a three-car team in Toyota’s first year in the series.Asked if, knowing what he knows now, he would still go with three teams, Waltrip said, “Heck yeah."http://www.thatsracin.com/242/story/3821.html~~~There's news and no news with Earnhardt Jr.'s contract negotiations. Some reports say Teresa has agreed to his 51% ownership deal, and then there are other reports saying Jr had no clue about that issue. Depends who 'ya read. Heck, at this moment, on NASCAR.com, this is Jeff Gordon's 4th pole of the year, while over at Fox, it's his 3rd!! So as I always say, time will tell.~~~In memorial of the victims of Virginia Tech, All Nextel Cup and Busch cars at Phoenix, Talladega and Richmond and Trucks at Kansas will carry Virginia Tech logos to the right of the driver’s-side window nets as a tribute to victims of this week’s shootings on the campus.http://www.thatsracin.com/242/story/3793.html~~~It look slike 20 Cup drivers have entered the Busch Aaron's 312 at Talladega.~~~BUSCH SERIES - Friday, 9 p.m. ET (ESPN2)At Phoenix Int'l RacewayQualifying: Friday, 5:35 p.m. ETNEXTEL CUP SERIES - Saturday, 8:45 p.m. ETAt Phoenix Int'l Raceway~~~Tony Stewart took call after call on his Sirius Satellite show from so many people saying don't retire Tony!! It would seem his quick, off the cuff remark got many people up in arms and Tony paid the price by having to answer all their calls. Matt Yocum noted that then ext time Tony has to answer a question, he needs to ponder how many calls he will have to take in regards to what ever action he takes!!I almost feel bad for him.~~~In case you hadn't noticed, Clint Bowyer is haning in there this year pretty tough. In my race recap blog you can see his number pop up in the top 10 repeatedly through out the different races. You go Clint!!http://www.thatsracin.com/242/story/3802.html

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

When Dale Jr took the wheel of the 5 car to finish out the last 10 laps at Texas, that got a whole lot of curiosity brewing. Rumor mills woudn up and skepticisms ignited, but in the long run, I think it was just a driver helping another driver or team.Check out Jeff Hammond's persepctive HERE.

Monday, April 16, 2007

Can you blame him? On teh Dallasnews site, Troy Aikman tossed out the idea, in a refreshingly positive way, that NASCAR seems inconsistent in their penalty processes. It's a great, short article to catch up on at LINK, while it's still on the page.Or, here's the article:

Aikman can't figure out NASCAR's infractions

Troy Aikman said the most surprising thing he's learned since getting into NASCAR in 2006 is how series officials handle penalties. "I still haven't been able to quite figure out how NASCAR decides on their degrees of punishment," he said. "How those are handed down. I don't want to use the word inconsistency." Aikman cited his team's first race from 2006, when it was docked 25 points and fined $25,000 for using an illegal carburetor in qualifying at the Daytona 500. At the same race, Jimmie Johnson's team set up the car so it could change height during qualifying. No points were deducted, but the team lost its crew chief for four races.

"I think for the most part," Aikman said, "how things are handled and how punishment is given out [in the NFL] is pretty consistent from one case to the next, and I don't know that is the case in NASCAR."

As one article put it: Taking out Tony Raines is one thing. Taking out Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. is something else entirely.

I've seen Montoya get into it in each race he's been in, from his own team mate, to others that he's battling for position with, the latest victim being Tony Stewart.

My first thought was, "What the heck is this guy doing?". I've seen interviews saying he is going to race hard, and I got all grumpy about it, but then again, who hasn't gone through this phase where they are new to the Cup series, and tried to barrel their way through the field and other competitors cars? If you think about it, it's a fairly distinguished & long list of drivers.

So with that latter thought, I calmed myself down and read this article: link

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Here's a snippet from my Race Recap blog for the last 20 laps:20 to go: 24, 17, 16, 31 & 01. Kenseth is looking to pass Gordon.17 to go: Kenseth goes on the outside and passes Gordon for the lead. Montoya is passing Stremme, Mark Martin has passed biffle for 4th.13 to go - Burton takes 2nd from Gordon and looks to be closing on Kenseth. 17, 31, 24, 01 & 16.Burton gets inside of Kenseth, but cannot take the position. HERE's a whacky NOTE: The 5 car is back on the track - but JR is driving it according to the Fox announcers.7 to go: Burton keeps bobbling and loses some ground. Kenseth goes up the hill, Burton catches back up. We're watching Truex trying to take 7th but Montoya fights back. (Look out Martin!!)3 to go: Burton keeps getting inside of Kenseth,but he can't pull away.2 to go: They are side by side. (31 and 17 that is) LAST LAP: Finally, Burton gets out in front of Kenseth coming out of 2 and goes on to win the race!!!The clean racer WINS, and Jeff Burton is the first driver to win multiple times at Texas!!31, 17, 01, 24, 26, 16, 1, 42, 11 & 40 ar the top 10.What a great last 20 laps!! Gotta love the classic car of yesterday!!Jeff Gordon had a strong car, but slapped the wall in the last 20 laps. Stewart got spun out fighting Montoya for position and Johnson, while losing a cylinder, got collected and garaged it. Jr had a strong car, but got taken out of the action when Stewart got spun, Jr checked up and Kyle Busch slammed him hard in the back end. It was a crazy race.It was so crazy, the last 10 laps, the 5 car finally got back out on the track , but JR was driving it, according to the Fox sports casters.Here's today's results:http://msn.foxsports.com/nascar/cup/results

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Kelley Earnhardt Elledge, sister, business manager and chief negotiator for Dale Earnhardt Jr, isn't yet convinced a contract extension with the company their father founded is on the horizon for NASCAR's biggest star.

It's not that talks are going badly. But many variables exist -- and time is precious."I don't know if we'll get there," Elledge said of an extension. "It's hard. When you start talking about the piece of ownership for Dale in [Dale Earnhardt, Inc.], that's part of my business, too. That's part of [half-brother] Kerry's business. That's part of [half-sister] Taylor's business."There's a whole lot of dynamics that play into it all." Article Continued

Thursday, April 12, 2007

This weekends race is at Texas Motor Speedway and there may be rain in the forecast for qualifying.The teams are back in the cars they've been driving for years, leaving the COT for another weekend. Coming back to the old cars, brings new engines under the Chevy hoods.Michael Waltrip is not having the best of years. It's bad enough he isn't getting in the field, it's bad enough cheating took place within the team, and it's now bad enough that he fell asleep at the wheel wrecking his Toyota. (At least he was driving one.) He's battling an uphill battle as, I am sure he is committing much of his time to his business venture in the team and I think, we have just seen how hard he is working at it by the fact he fell asleep at the wheel. Get sleep Mikey. Pictures of his truck are here

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Michael Waltrip's season just keeps getting more challenging with every turn of the wrench, or late night road, as the case may be.Mikey has been charged with reckless driving and failing to report an accident after hitting a telephone pole and rolling his car about a mile from his home over the weekend. (That's probably the only pole he'll get this year!)

Waltrip, who suffered scratches to his arms, hands and face and cuts on his finger, said he fell asleep at the wheel right before he wrecked his Toyota Land Cruiser early Saturday morning. He left the scene of the accident and walked the rest of the way home.(Well, at least he was driving a Toyota, and not caught driving a chevy!!)

Police found him at his house about six hours after finding the car at the accident scene.article

The company also listed an "impairment charge" of more than $61 million for Nashville, Memphis and Gateway - devaluing the value of those tracks because of the lower-than-anticipated television revenues generated by the four Busch races at those tracks.

Dover expected the new TV deal this year to allot a bigger percentage to Busch races than the 5 percent allocated in the 2001-2006 package. But NASCAR is allotting only 5.75 percent of the new contract for Busch events.

With that impairment charge, Dover reported an overall loss of $35.345 million last year. It's after-tax adjusted earnings for last year were $5.7 million, the same as for 2005.

Zoinks, it sure does cost a pretty penny to play with the big boys (NASCAR).

Monday, April 9, 2007

The only way NASCAR will control cheating is to send race teams home, seven-time champion Richard Petty said. The man with a record 200 Nextel Cup Series victories said fines don't work in a sport that runs with $20 million-a-team budgets. -- Savannah Morning News

Dale Jarrett has announced he's not racing after 2008, and has started making his inroads to his driving retirment by being in the booth of ESPN for 10 Busch telecasts, where he too can get cut off in mid transmission so ABC / ESPN can go to underwater basket weaving coverage right at the end of the race. Then again, if he goes through all his past champion provisionals, he can start the booth stuff for cup!!

Well, it used to be nose pieces, and roof aero. Now it's intake manifolds.NASCAR issued a technical bulletin ordering Toyota teams in the Busch series and the Craftsman truck series to use different intake manifolds to reduce the amount of power they were producing to level the playing field, yet again.link

Friday, April 6, 2007

Found a most interesting article titled "Go to Hell NASCAR (and stay there)" by a one Andrew Shaffer on IDSNews.com.It's a most interesting, one sided, non researched perspective I have ever read, but then again, for whatever reason, those who do not like auto sports do tend to just pluck references and morphisms out of the air to support their opinion.I for one would like to see how he handles 10 laps at CA speedway, or dealing with the 120 degree heat for 3+ hours while losing 3 to 5 lbs of sweat. But then again, NASCAR drivers aren't athletes because they only use their feet to compete and not their legs. Give me a break Andrew and do some reading.

Thursday, April 5, 2007

One of the Indy Racing League's longtime team owners is pushing the idea of IRL-NASCAR Nextel Cup combined events.John Barnes is owner and general manager of Panther Racing and he's presented a logical approach to maximizing fans and dollars, and also helping tracks centralize their events, by suggesting that "if the IRL event was positioned as a support race to NASCAR events, Indy-style racing would benefit."

He contends Saturday to be an IRL day and Sunday would be a NASCAR day. His premise is to get the IRL in front of NASCAR fans and "show them what real racing is all about."OK, ok, hold it right there.. "real racing"? It's still a good idea, but the last time I saw an IRL car rub fenders, they were done for the day!! To each his own, because each league brings something different to the table for different fans!

But then, there's the naysayers: "Terry Angstadt, the IRL's new president of its commercial division, said the IRL would not allow itself to be presented as a support race."And, in my humble opinion, squeezing all the action into one weekend, forcing the Busch series to move to Sunday, reallocating all the contracts and schedules.. zoinks.. that'd be trick, it seems to me! But that's just my opinion!You can read the entire article here.

Over the last couple of days, there were a "few" teams at Richmond, testing the COT for the upcoming event there in May.There were from 59 to 68 drivers testing, depending on which of the 4 test session over the last 2 days you looked at, with Greg Biffle, Kenny Wallace, Kurt Busch and Reed Sorenson leading the speed charts for each of those sessions.

NASCAR will issue a technical bulletin prior to the next Car of Tomorrow race advising Nextel Cup teams to reconfigure the area around the protective foam on the right side of the vehicle, where some drivers have reported apparent smoldering or melting during the past two weeks.More details here: LinkNASCAR is basically saying more airflow please.

Been reading here and there that TV ratings are down or stagnate.NASCAR took off as they changed their format, but now we're comparing ratings today to the hyper-growth period of growth then. Then again, they are also leaving behind their hard core fans by favoring newer tracks and walking away from the tracks that made it's storied history.I think the best thing for the ratings, is when drivers go at each other, well, let them.Whether NASCAR likes the image or not, drama and controversy brings the attention and the money.Remember Harvick and Biffle at Bristol.Gordon and Kenseth? (Hmm, at Bristol again)And Stewart? (Too tracks to note here)Remember when Jimmy Spencer decked Kurt Busch in his car? I became a Spencer fan, bought a diecast of his, and also bought a Kurt Busch diecast that I promptly tied to the back of my truck and dragged down the street. (Unfortunately, the aero on the damn diecast was pretty good and it stayed wheels down for most of the drive.)These and many others are continual highlights on various shows openings or what not.If we let the drivers "police" themselves, there would be less wrecks on the track also, as the newer drivers trying to emulate Earnhardt Sr would use more precaution knowing they were going to "get a lecture" after the race.Well, it's just a thought off the cuff.

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

In a nutshell, without wasting your time, the developers dropped their proposal for a track in Washington.Great Western Sports, a subsidiary of International Speedway Corp., announced the decision to drop the plan for the motorsports venue in Kitsap County, across Puget Sound from the Seattle metropolitan area.http://www.thatsracin.com/242/story/3612.html

Jimmy Sprinkle, 44, was a mechanic for Brian Vickers, a driver for the Red Bull racing team, was shot to death outside his home in Alexander County late Saturday. LinkOur deepest condolences to his family and friends.

Sunday, April 1, 2007

It was a great finish as Jeff Gordon & Jimmie Johnson banged and bumped the last 5 laps away, as Gordon tried to get past Johnson. The finish was fun to watch and pretty tight.After a number of yellow flags, a few tire failures, Kevin Harvick had the same fuel pump line problem Tony Stewart did last week, then after they got that fixed, they came back out and a few laps later the protective foam in the right door cuaght on fire.A few other drivers were oveheard noting the excessive heat in the cars.The total results are HERE

Once again, sadly for the Mikey fans out there, Michael Waltrip did not make the starting field for this weekends race, The Goody's Cool Orange 500 at Martinsville. Neither did Paul Menard, Kenny Wallace, Kevin Lepage, Brian Vickers or Ward Burton.For Dale Jarrett, the starting grid on NASCAR.com does not show that he got in with a provisional this week, so that's good news for MWR and David Ruetimann is starting 43rd.Then again, weather.cnn.com is predicting thunder storms, so I ain't holding my breath.TRUCK RACE Saturday: Mike Skinner won his 3rd in a row NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at the Kroger 250. He's also now only the 2nd driver to win more than once at Martinsville.The top 10 were Skinner, T. Bodine, R Crawford, K Harvick, T Musgrave, R Hornaday, A Fike, T Walker, T Peters, J Benson. The complete race results are athttp://www.nascar.com/races/truck/2007/4/data/results_unofficial.htmland series standings are at:http://www.nascar.com/races/truck/2007/data/standings_unofficial.html

If you've ever needed to figure out a radio station to broadcast your satellite radio toy to, check out this site. I find it useful when travelling.

http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/vacantIt finds unused frequencies for your satellite listening pleasures. Of course, if you live in an area like the Bay Area of CA, an unused frequency is not an easy thing to come by, so what I've relegated to is finding a channel used by a very weak station, like a local college station or something like that. It works ok for me.